William Nigh's Doomed to Die was the first Mr. Wong film that I have ever seen. But having seen it, I'm not entirely sure that it even was a Mr. Wong film: the titular character gets barely any screen time. He doesn't even get a proper dramatic entrance. Instead, in his first scene he just sorta wanders onscreen. There really isn't anything remarkable about Doomed to Die. There's a lackluster murder mystery plot and boring, run-of-the-mill cinematography. I was pleasantly surprised by Boris Karloff's performance as Mr. Wong, though. Considering that the film was made in 1940, I was fully expecting the character to be a Fu Manchu-esque grotesquerie. But Karloff brought a lot of quiet dignity to the role. He brought so much quiet dignity that you had to really squint and pay attention or else you'd forget that his character was in the movie in the first place.
5/10
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